


Of Love and Cryptids

by the_space_between_the_stars



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Keith loves his cryptids, Keith wants to start a new club, Lance has a Cuban last name, Lance hears him out, Lance is just trying to follow along, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-23
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 10:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9885254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_space_between_the_stars/pseuds/the_space_between_the_stars
Summary: Lance is stuck in the library on a Friday night, and gets roped into joining a new club with the slogan, "NO HOAX, NO JOKES, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Club Stuff:
> 
> Bigfoot (Synonymous with Sasquatch);  
> • Found worldwide  
> • Between 6-10ft (2-3m) tall.  
> • Described as being 400 – 1000 lbs (180-450 kgs)  
> • Hair is long and shaggy, covering the majority of its body with hair being shorter on its head  
> • Most often described as brown though there are reports of gray, white, black, and bluish-green Bigfoot species  
> • Russia, France and Germany have all placed Bigfoot on the endangered species list  
> 

Nobody had told him that college would be this damn hard. Everyone had said that college would be the, “best four years of your life”, but at what cost? His sanity?

It was Friday night and Lance was in the library mumbling incoherently, hunched over a computer typing furiously. Why for the love of god did his laptop have to crash during midterms? He had four 12 page papers due next week and if he wanted to pass his courses he was now constricted to the confines of the school library until they were safely submitted. He was just starting in on page 6 of the first of his essays… a rousing essay on abnormal psychology; sighing in defeat, Lance accepted that this week was probably going to be one of the worst weeks of his life thus far. The library was mostly empty at 9:30pm, as most students were out enjoying the night at the local bar or at dorm parties throughout campus, which is where Lance would much rather have been, however now was not the time to be thinking about his seemingly dying social life as he refocused his thoughts to the subject matter at hand.

An hour later Lance was interrupted by the unmistakable sound of a paper jam in one of the library’s printers. Lance turned towards the source of the sound to look at whatever poor soul who was not only stuck with the misfortune of being in the library on a Friday night, but also cursed with a jammed printer. There he saw a scowling pale-skinned boy with black-hair pulled into a low ponytail, backpack slung over one shoulder, kneeling in front of the printer opening and closing the various compartments, obviously having no idea how to fix a the problem. The black-haired boy was cursing out the printer just loud enough that Lance could hear him from his computer halfway across the room. Lance watched the boy struggle (hell it was way more entertaining than the essay he was working on) until the boy decided that enough was enough and let out a dramatic huff and glanced around. Lance watched as the boy’s eyes darted to the few people spread throughout the room- a girl slouched in an armchair with her laptop in her lap (was she watching _Cars 2?_   Who in god’s name voluntarily watched that?), a boy with large noise cancelling headphones who was bent over a textbook with a highlighter in hand, and then to Lance who was pretending not to watch him. Lance averted his eyes to the collection of research materials he had organized next to his computer praying that the boy hadn’t noticed him looking, god that would be awkward… but of course fate had other plans and Lance heard a light clearing of the throat only to look up and see that the boy had walked over and was now standing over him.

 

“Um hey, do you know how to fix a printer jam by any chance?” The boy asked scratching the back of his neck looking uncomfortable.

 

Lance glanced at the printer, “hmm, maybe. I can try.”

 

The boy looked relieved, “cool thanks- I really don’t know what I’m doing.”

 

Lance resisted the urge to laugh, _yeah bud I saw you try… all aboard the struggle bus…_

 

They walked over to the printer and Lance bent down and opened up a small compartment, the boy watched wordlessly as Lance worked to pull out the jammed piece of paper.

 

“Fun Friday night, am I right?” Lance joked as he gave a final tug on the paper, releasing it from the printer’s jaws of death, “Living the dream… doesn’t every college student want to spend the weekend holed up in the library?”

 

The boy shrugged, “I guess.”

 

“I’ve been here since 4pm," Lance continued,  "laptop crashed. Just in time for midterms too. College life at its finest.”

 

“Mhmm, sucks.”

 

Lance quirked his eyebrow, this boy was clearly not much of a talker.

 

“It should be all set,” Lance said closing the printer compartment, crumpling the offending piece of paper and shoving it into his pocket, “you’ll just have to hit resume on whatever computer you’re printing from.”

 

“Got it, thanks.” The boy nodded and picked up a large stack of papers that had been printed before the jam.

 

Noticing the stack, Lance’s eyes widened, “whoa man, you’ve been busy! That’s a serious essay that you’ve got right there, no wonder you’re here on Friday.”

 

The boy looked confused for a split second before shaking his head, “Wha- oh, oh no, this isn’t a paper. I’m trying to start a new club on campus. These are flyers.”

 

He held one out to the brunet who took it and looking down inhaled sharply, stifling his immediate reaction to laugh.

 

This was pure gold.

 

In all caps the flyer read, “NO HOAX, NO JOKES, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE” and in smaller letter, “Join Us on Wednesdays from 5-6pm in Balfour 203 to learn more about crypids, the mysterious, and the unexplained”. But the best part was that there in the center of the flyer was the grainy, yet unmistakable photo of Bigfoot.

 

Lance bit his lip; this was too much, “oh whoa man… good luck getting your club started. It looks pretty cool, I mean Bigfoot is prettyyyy mysterious, with his big feet and such.”

 

The black haired boy’s face lit up, “Yeah, I decided to put Bigfoot on the flyers because I thought he’s the most well-known and there is a lot of evidence proving his existence- although I was definitely torn between him and Mothman.”

 

So this is what it got to take the boy to talk. Frigging _cryptids_. Lance should have known, only weirdos and the truly unfortunate found themselves in the campus library at 11pm on a Friday.

 

Lance nodded, “Gotta be honest, I don’t know a whole lot about cryptids. I’ve never even heard of Mothman, so in my opinion I think you made a good call going with Bigfoot.”

 

The boy looked personally offended, “Wait a second, Mothman? You’ve never heard of _Mothman_?”

 

“I can’t say that I have,” Lance answered truthfully.

 

“Ok, you should definitely take this flyer and come to the meeting on Wednesday it’s from 5-6pm. Seriously there is so much evidence for the existence of these creatures: Bigfoot, Mothman, Loch Ness, Frogman… there are hundreds.” The boy rattled on, counting his fingers with each cryptid. This boy was passionate to say the least. “Cryptozoology is a legitimate science but so many people dismiss it because it focuses the _unknown and unexplained_ , but isn’t that what most science focuses on: finding and explaining things?”

 

Lance nodded slowly, “I’m in no position to really say either way at the moment but I’ll keep your club in mind if I want to become more informed.”

 

The black-haired boy nodded firmly, “here let me get your email address that way I can add you to the email list so I can send you reminders about meeting times.”

 

Lance paused for a second, what was the worst that could happen? He’d get an email once a week about a club that he had no intention of ever going to, no big deal. Especially since this dude seemed ecstatic about the whole cryptid thing.

 

“Sure. Let me just grab a pen.”

 

Lance walked over to his stuff putting the flyer on top of his research materials and fetched a pen, pausing for a brief moment to glance at his essay. What a weird night.

 

“Got a piece of paper?” Lance asked as he walked back over.

 

The boy pulled out a red notebook from his backpack labeled _Club Stuff_. “Just write it anywhere. I’ll find it.”

 

Lance opened the notebook and saw page upon page filled with information, and in some cases illustrations of various cryptids, Jersey Devil, Dover Demon, Aliens, Skinwalkers-it was like looking into an alternate reality. The pages were so filled with notes that Lance had few options as to where to even write down his email address. Finally he found a small space where he had just enough space to write Perez_Lance@Altea.edu, and upon closing the notebook he wasn’t sure he could even remember where it was that he’d written it down. He wouldn't be surprised if the boy in front of him never found his email hidden among the wealth of information in the notebook.

 

“You’re really into this whole cryptid thing, aren’t you?” Lance asked handing the notebook back to the boy his blue eyes wide.

 

The black-haired boy bobbed his head, “yeah, definitely- the things in this notebook are only a few of the things I want to talk about at the club meetings. I have three more journals like that one back in my dorm.”

 

This was too much; Lance felt himself hit his limit.

 

“That’s super cool but, I’ve got to go work on my essay again. It was nice talking to you, definitely made my Friday night a little more interesting.”

 

“Yeah it’s late, I should probably head back to my room,” the boy agreed, “oh by the way, I’m Keith Kogane just so you know who is sending the club emails.”

 

Lance smiled, “Sure thing Keith. It was nice talking with you, have a good night.”

 

Lance walked back over to his computer and watched as Keith carefully tucked his flyers into his backpack before heading out of the library without a single glance back.

 

Shaking his head, Lance woke his computer from sleep mode and reread what he’d written; it seemed like a good place to stop for the time being. He hit save, packed up his stuff, and left the library knowing full well that he’d be back first thing in the morning.

 

Shoving his hands in his pockets he felt the crumpled paper that caused the printer to jam, why hadn't he just tossed it in the recycling when it had been right next to him? Too late now to throw it away, pulling it out and he smoothed it as best as possible and one glance had Lance in near tears. There it was again in all caps 'NO HOAX, NO JOKES, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE" and half of the picture of Bigfoot before it got cut off. It truly was a modern piece of art, a masterpiece, and above all absolutely hilarious. Now he was the lucky owner of 2 copies of this flyer, could not wait to show Hunk and Pidge. 

 

As he made his way across campus Lance pulled out his phone and sent out a quick group text:

_Lance Pérez : Guys! I had the craziest thing happen to me tonight.                                          _

_Pidge Gunderson : Crazier than the time you swear you saw Justin Bieber on a local bus?       _

_Lance Pérez : Ok unnecessary, I already admitted I was wrong on that one -__-                      _

_Pidge Gunderson : Crazier than the time Beyonce tried to buy you pizza?                                _

_Lance Pérez : YOU WEREN'T THERE PIDGE, YOU DIDN'T SEE IT IN ALL IT'S GLORY.                    _

_Hunk Garrett : Haha ok, ok Pidge let’s hear him out . ^^                                                         _

_Pidge Gunderson : Ugh, fine. What happened?                                                                        _

_Lance Pérez : I’m headed back to the dorm now. My door is unlocked, _ _let yourselves in. Meet you in 5.  :)_

 

Lance grinned as he slid his phone back into his pocket ignoring the incoming messages. This was a story he wanted to tell in person. After all, it wasn’t every day that you found Bigfoot in a printer.

 

* * *

 


End file.
